


Our Eyes Fixed on the Stars

by TheAllRealNumbersSymbol



Series: Like a Star [8]
Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action, Cannon welding, Courtly Love, Crossover, Drama, Fix-It, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Post-Rebellion Story, Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2020-05-15 16:38:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19299610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAllRealNumbersSymbol/pseuds/TheAllRealNumbersSymbol
Summary: I did not come to teach you.I came to love you.Love will teach you.When Madoka met Loki in the Void, she left a piece of her power with him, to help him.  But when Loki called her in the Void, after that meeting, she didn't come.Now, after Homura's Rebellion, and the attack on New York, Oriko Mikuni and Kirika Kure set out to right what once went wrong. Their first stop: Asgard.  Sequel to Starry Heavens.





	1. Wish Upon a Black Star

**Author's Note:**

> This is a test of a sequel to Starry Heavens. I hate the turns the MCU has taken, and I'm not thrilled with the PMMM creators taking forever to get us the sequel to Rebellion. 
> 
> This is just a test because I'm not sure how I feel about this story. So if you would, when you get to the end of this little test-drive here, please leave feedback regarding what you liked, didn't like, is everyone in character, etc, etc, and please accept that some things do not get explained in this because even though it's a test drive it's actually also a first chapter of a multi-chapter fic.

Prologue

_Darkness was all around but in the faint light she could see the icy rock she stood on in the void of space and she could hear the strange sounds of the aliens moving off in the distance where she can’t see them._

_She knows it’s a dream. She’s had so many of them. But she doesn’t like it._

_A voice, a man’s voice, trembling as it called, “Lady Madoka…Gretchen… please, wherever you are, help me…”_

_She’s had this dream before. It’s one that, like the attack on New York, is stuck on repeat. But it doesn’t give her any fewer chills…_

_She can hear a banging sound now, and it’s not nearly as far away as she’d like it to be…_

_Oriko jerked awake, gasping. The curtain at her window, which was open just a crack, drifted slightly in the breeze._

_The banging came again, and Oriko realized that it was someone banging on the door. She sighed and threw the blankets back._

_“I’m going to sleep for a month when this is all over,” Oriko threatened the empty air as she strode to the front door, tying the robe she’d grabbed as she’d left her room shut as she did._

_She pulled the door open and gave a long look to the pink-haired girl, still in her Puella Magi form, who was standing there. “Iroha, what are you doing here?”_

_Iroha had pretty clearly been crying on the way over and even now she was trying to regain her composure. But the battle was pretty quickly lost and she burst into tears again a moment later._

_Oriko watched, bored. “If you intend to give in to negativity like that, transform back to normal. It’ll save some wear and tear on your Soul Gem.”_

_Iroha took a sobbing breath and gasped out one word. “Yachiyo.”_

_In spite of Oriko’s best efforts, she could tell her alarm was showing. “What about her?”_

_“She…She…” Iroha’s voice broke out again, and she held out her hand. On her palm was a small black circle, with a long silver point underneath it and on top, a twisted version of Yachiyo’s symbol of a crescent moon._

_Oriko’s eyes widened and she gingerly reached out to pick up the object._

_“She…she became a monster, so we…” Iroha trailed off. “That was all we found afterward.”_

_The Law of Cycles is broken, and Oriko knows it for sure._

_This has to end. Now._  


~xXx~

...

  
**Don’t forget –  
**  
Always, somewhere  
Someone is fighting for you.  
As long as you remember her  
You are not alone.  


...

~xXx~

Chapter 1: Wish Upon a Black Star

By the time Loki is summoned to stand trial for his invasion of Midgard, he’s legitimately begun to wonder if the Allfather intends to leave him to rot in Asgard’s dungeons until the end of time.

When he’s brought before the throne, the audience chamber isn’t entirely empty. Thor and Frigga stand one side. Thor’s face is unreadable, which is a novelty for him. Frigga looks grieved. 

He’s led in, under guard, and he can see the look in the Allfather’s eye that says that this time, forgiveness is not something he should expect. 

He doesn’t care. Let them judge him. No one here knows what it’s like to be trapped in a maze with no way out. 

“I will speak to the prisoner alone,” Odin says, but then he pauses, and listens, and the others do also, ignoring the order to leave. 

Out in the distance is the sounds of a fight. And it’s getting closer. 

Mjolnir leaps to Thor’s hand. “What is this?” he demands of Loki. “Another of your tricks?”

“Oh, it’s not me this time,” Loki replies. And thinks, as he does, that this time he’s telling the truth. 

The doors at the end of the chamber are knocked open a moment later, and a teenager who appears to be Midgardian walks in. She’s dressed in a dark coat that trails behind her, edged with white lace at the sleeves, a white skirt, black boots and eyepatch, and tall white stockings that don’t quite touch her skirt. 

And a flicker of memory springs forward in Loki’s mind, about the last time he saw that peculiar way of wearing stockings…

Four of the guards who had escorted Loki in race forward. All of a sudden, claws of energy spring forward from her hands, under the long lace cuffs of her sleeves, and she leaps forward faster then should be possible and bats them away. 

Two more guards follow after them, leaving only four to guard Loki. The girl shoots one set of her claws at the first guard and he goes flying to the far end of the room. With the other hand, she blocks the next one’s sword, then pulls back and lets the man lunge toward her as her claws disappear altogether. Time is suddenly slow around the guard, who moves forward in millimeters as the girl, moving through time at a normal rate, leaps into the air and lands a roundhouse kick straight on the side of the man’s head. Then time is moving normally again and the man goes flying. 

She looks at the others. Not warily, but appraisingly. The claws come back out on both hands. 

“Anyone else?” She asks. 

Odin slams his staff on the ground. “Who are you?”

She looks at him for a long moment, but doesn’t answer. She also doesn’t try to attack anyone. The guard she had roundhouse kicked is picking himself up, as are the other guards. She looks at them, waiting, but Odin makes a motion with his hand and the guards don’t move. The girls turns and trains her uncovered eye on Loki. 

“Loki?” She asks. 

“Yes.” There’s no reason for him to deny it. “Did the Chitauri send you?”

She looks at him for a long moment. Then says, “Don’t know ‘em.”

“Who are you?” Thor demands. Mjolnir hums in his hand. 

Behind the girl in the black coat, another girl, this one blonde, in a flowing white dress and white hat with a long mantilla walked in. She took in the scene and sighed. “Kirika, you have quite a way of making an introduction.”

“You have been asked a question and I expect an answer. Who are you?” Odin repeats. Off in the distance somewhere, thunder rumbles. It has to be Thor’s doing. 

The girl in white looks unconcerned. “I’m Oriko Mikuni. This,” She gestures at the girl in the black coat, “Is my cohort, Kirika Kure. We’re here to…retrieve something.”

“If it’s the Tesseract I don’t have it anymore,” Loki volunteers without being offered. 

Oriko and Kirika looked confused. Oriko recovered first and stepped forward to face them. Kirika turned around to face the other direction and so watch Oriko’s back.  
“Whatever the Tessearact is is not why we’re here. We’re here because we were sent to ask you for something that you were given a long time ago. A powerful talisman.”

Loki frowned. There’s only one thing he has anymore that might still fit that description. He pulled out a butterfly, grey, with dark grey tips and red spots on the wings. “This? I wouldn’t call it a powerful talisman.”

“That’s it,” Oriko’s eyes lit up, and she stepped forward, extending a hand as though to take it. 

As if, Loki thinks, he would let her. It might be – it is – worthless, but it is his. 

But Kirika has turned now, just enough to glance behind her, and sees what Oriko is doing. “If you touch that, will the Devil know it exists?”

And Oriko drops her hand suddenly as though the butterfly is a flaming coal Loki is holding. 

“It is of no use to you,” He tells them, voice suddenly harder and sharper than it needs to be. “There’s no power in it.”

“The One who gave that to you gave power with it,” Oriko said. 

Loki lets out a short bark of a laugh, and then stops. “No. I tried to call to her. In the void. With the-” He stopped suddenly. No one needed to know what had happened in the Void, and then with the Chitauri. “She didn’t answer. She didn’t come.”

Oriko looks as though none of this is a surprise to her. “She did hear you. She knew what was happening and she wanted to come. But she couldn’t. A Devil interfered and stole her power. We’re trying to change that and restore her. You’re holding the last known piece of her power and we need to give it back to her.”

He should be angry about this. He tells himself that he has a right to be angry after everything that’s happened. But when Loki thinks back to her, the only light he found in the Void, and the time he’d spent with her, and the kindness given so freely. He just can’t.

He wonders if she’ll forgive him now, after everything he’s done. He would like her too. More than anyone else, except maybe Frigga, he would like Madoka to forgive him for what he's done; what he's had to do. 

Oriko hasn’t finished. “She knows what happened to you. And she’s going to fix this.”

The statement makes him smile in spite of himself. Yes, if anyone could fix this problem, it would be Her. Loki held out the butterfly. “What do you need?”

“What is the meaning of this?” Odin demanded behind them. 

“The meaning of this, the short one, is that Loki has something we need to fix the world we live in.” Oriko finally said after a long moment’s consideration.

“Fix the world?” Thor asked. “You’re from Earth. What has broken there?”

“The magic system we live under,” Oriko replied, this time without having to think her answer over. 

“Earth has sorcerers now?” Thor asked. 

“They’re not sorcerers,” Loki muttered. 

“He’s right. We’re not. We’re Puella Magi, and we’re here because that system has broken and we need to fix it. As promptly as possible,” Oriko said. She was starting to get frustrated now; the explanations were taking longer than she’d planned. Of course, they hadn’t found Loki alone, either, which might be a factor. She decided to go back to her original plan and turned back to Loki. “Could you please put a spell around that butterfly talisman, so that I can’t use its power?”

“Of course,” Loki replied. 

“What do you plan to do?” Odin demanded.

“I’m going to take that talisman back to its rightful owner.” Oriko told him. 

“Was it stolen?” Odin asked, and in spite of himself, Loki felt his lips curl into a sneer. Of course that’s what they would think. Of course they think he stole it.

“No, it was given. Not stolen. But now the giver needs it back,” Oriko explained. 

The spell complete, Loki held the butterfly out to Oriko, who took it carefully, as though afraid of what might happen to it if she held it wrong. 

“How do you plan to return it?” Thor asks, his voice curious. 

“Well,” Oriko took a deep breath. “If you would be so kind as to throw that hammer at me, and smash this,” She set a hand on the brooch in the center of her dress, “It would be helpful.”

And Loki can’t make sense of the answer, because he can see that her magic is mixed into her being in a way he can’t quite make out, but the white threads of it that are around her all tie back to that stone he thinks he knows exactly what will happen if that stone is broken. “If you don’t mind my asking, why are you asking him to kill you?”

Thor looked taken aback at this. “Kill you?” he repeated as though he couldn’t understand. 

“Yes,” Oriko sighed. “It will kill me,” She frowned at Loki. “I do mind you asking.” She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed out a breath. 

Behind her, Kirika muttered, “If it were easy…”

Oriko knows what she means, and it’s true.

But it’s not what she wants to hear.


	2. Today, the Sky Fell

“So, what you’re saying,” Thor repeated, as though trying to understand, “is that this person you work for is a being of great power who was captured and now needs to be freed,” He pauses and glances at Loki, “And she knows Loki, and she gave him part of her power.”

“Yes,” Oriko said as Kirika muttered, “Close enough.”

The new chamber they were in was smaller. The guards had been dismissed, though Loki’s hands were still manacled. The other chains he’d been wearing had been removed. Oriko was making it a point to sit at the small table there. Servants had brought in light food and she was sipping a cup of what she thought was tea. 

Odin had consigned the present situation to Thor’s care before retiring with Frigga to attend to other matters. Thor sat at the table with Oriko and Loki, looking thoughtful. Kirika was perched on the railing of a balcony a few feet away. She, unlike Oriko, had eaten and she was watching the others patiently. 

“And now you’ll take the power back to her and she’ll be free,” Thor finished. 

“It’s a little more complicated than that. But yes, that’s what we plan to do,” Oriko said. Then she closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in front of her. It appeared as though she was in prayer. “We need to get the butterfly to her, and I only know one way to do it.”

“I will not smash your soul,” Thor said. He didn’t call it a Soul Gem, but his name for it might be more truthful than the pretty words Kyubey liked to use. “Why do you not simply take it and hand it to her?”

“Because we don’t know what the Devil knows and we’ve spent months acting like she’s almost ready to catch on to us,” Oriko retorted, opening her eyes and dropping her hands. There were no visions forthcoming and she didn’t like it. It left her with a feeling of unease. “What we do know is that if we walk into Mitakihara, the Devil will know we’re there. And it won’t take her to long to find out why we’re there.”

“Because of your magic,” Loki said. 

“Absolutely,” Oriko replied. 

“I can help,” Thor volunteered suddenly. 

“Do you have magic?” Kirika spoke up.

“No.”

“How do you plan to help?” Kirika wanted to know. 

“I will go to this Mitakihara City and deliver the butterfly to your friend. Since I have no magic, no one will notice me,” Thor finished. 

The three magic users considered it. “The idea has merit,” Loki said, reluctantly. 

Oriko gave a sort of half-shrug and looked at Kirika for a long moment. “He’d attract less attention, magically speaking,” Kirika said, almost as though part of the conversation between the girls had been dropped somewhere. 

“Then it is settled and I will go,” Thor said with finality. “I will have Heimdall open the Bifrost-”

“I wouldn’t,” Loki cut him off suddenly. “You want to refrain from attracting attention, do you not? The Bifrost will attract nothing but attention.”

“I must get there somehow! What do you suggest?”

“No one goes to Mitakihara anymore,” Kirika said.

“Which is a roundabout way of saying that no one really knows how to find Her once you’re inside,” Oriko added, ignoring the original question as she did. “No, I’m afraid that, even though you have no magic, it won’t do for anyone but a Puella Magi to take the butterfly to Mitakihara. Someone without magic will have a harder time identifying someone with magic.”

Loki nodded at that, but Thor just looked frustrated.

“I think we’ll have to go with the original plan,” Oriko decided. 

“I could shatter your Soul Gem, if you would like,” Loki offered, but a resounding clap of thunder a moment later outside was followed by Thor leaping to his feet. 

“You will do no such thing!” Thor roared at him, pulling Loki to his feet so that they were face to face. 

The light around them started to grow dimmer, but only Kirika looked around and began to notice it. Oriko sat shocked, watching the scene before her play out. Thor continued to shout at Loki, who acted as though his brother’s opinion was of no interest to him. 

Then something small and black dropped to the ground and the blackness in it began to grow. 

A moment later, a shock-wave of magic energy sent them all flying back.

(-)

When Thor opened his eyes, he wasn’t sure where he was, exactly. 

It should have been Asgard. At least, that’s the last place he remembered being. 

But this place didn’t look like Asgard. 

It looked like a dome, tall overhead and stretching down as far as could be seen, and in the center was a strange monster, the likes of which he had never seen before. Two legs, which might have ended in high heels or might have ended in hooves, were attached to a blue tube-like body wearing a sunhat. A tail of what appeared to be bird heads extended from it, and then there were a pair of curled horns that reminded him, distantly, of what Loki was fond of wearing on his helmet. Hanging under these horns was a lamp. Round red dispensers on thin stick-like legs run here and there. 

The red things stopped and shot out long strings of tickets. Then Kirika was in front of him. “Stepping fang!” She shouted, and shot hooked black circles at the red things. They disappeared a moment later but were replaced just as quickly by more. 

The next thing he noticed was that Loki was standing over him, his shackled wrists held out. “Take these off.”

Thor isn’t quite sure he understands, or that he’s hearing correctly. “What?”

Loki held his wrists out again, and looked annoyed. “I need these off. I need to be able to fight.”

Against his better judgment, and slow enough that Loki’s foot began to tap with impatience as around them Oriko and Kirika kept attacking the monster, Thor released the manacles from Loki’s hands. Loki rubbed his wrists briefly, then summoned two daggers, glowing with green energy, to his hands, and leapt into the fray. Thor held out a hand for Mjolnor.

But his hammer didn’t come.

(-)

Two of the red ticket dispensers, running about on their spindly stick-legs, were skewered by two thrown daggers.

Three more dispensers dropped to the bottom of the ward – for Loki could see that it was some kind of magical ward – in front of him and shot long strings of tickets at him. His dodge out of their way was more of a twirl, and then they were blown apart by a blast of green magic. 

Thor landed next to him as more of the dispensers appeared. “I cannot summon Mjolnor!”

_And how is that my problem?_ But he didn't say that. Instead, Loki said, “You’re inside a magical barrier, Thor. You can probably only act based on the whims of whatever creatures holds this barrier up. It probably felt Mjolnor coming and wanted nothing to do with that.”

Thor may not have had his hammer, but his punches did plenty of damage to the ticket dispensers anyway. “Then how do we get out of here?”

Loki paused and took in the situation, which was a hazardous idea as the place was crawling with dispensers and there were tickets flying everywhere. It was a strange way to fight, but this was magic and it would hurt if he were hit by the tickets. 

If he had said that he learned who was controlling the barrier from minding the magic in the place, Loki would have been lying. Much easier that tracking the magic was tracking who, or more accurately, what, the Puella Magi were fighting. 

“That,” He pointed out the monster in the middle of the ward, “is what is controlling the barrier.”

It was also what Oriko and Kirika were focusing most of their attacks at, though from time to time Kirika paused to use her claws to rip apart the ticket dispensers that got to close.

The creature lashed out with its tail. Both Puella Magi jumped back. Orbs with a flower embossed on them appeared by Oriko. “Oracle Ray!” She called as the orbs fired blasts of energy at the monster. 

Kirika landed behind her a moment later. “Stepping Fang!” She shouted, and shot her own attack at the monster. 

Not to be outdone by the Puella Magi, Loki’s blast of green magic came a moment later.

_Slow time,_ Kirika thought, and time crawled to a trickle on the magical attacks that had just been fired and the witch. Loki’s magic caught up with Oriko’s attack and joined it, and when it did Kirika released her time magic on the two blasts, allowing them to catch up to her Stepping Fang and make a much stronger layered attack of magic. 

The attack impacted the monster, which let out a shriek, and then faded away. 

The ward around them faded away a moment later, and all that was left was a small black object that looked like a bead lying on the ground. 

“What was that?” Thor demanded. 

“That was one of the many problems that we’re trying to solve,” Oriko replied as she stepped forward to pick up the object lying on the ground. 

“It’s the one you brought, isn’t it?” Kirika asked telepathically. 

“It is. I didn’t know it could do that. I wonder why,” Oriko replied the same way. Then she noticed that Loki was holding a hand out to her and she handed him the tiny sphere.

“This is an impressive piece of dark magic,” Loki says, rolling it between his long fingers for a moment before handing it back to Oriko. She tucked it away in her skirts. 

“I may have been wrong earlier,” Oriko said suddenly as she turned to Thor. “If you’re still willing to go to Mitakihara, it would be better. But we would have to find a way for you to recognize a Puella Magi when you meet her.”

“I will go,” Thor told her. 

Kirika turned to Loki. “So, you’re a Magi of some kind. Do you know a way to let him find other Puella Magi when he’s in Mitakihara?”

“I’m sure I can come up with something,” Loki said, and there’s a glint in his green eyes that suddenly, Thor isn’t entirely sure he wants to trust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks to folks who have read so far and left kudos so far! I forgot to list this as a multi-chapter fic, so I've fixed that. 
> 
> POTENTIAL SPOILERS/UNNEEDED COMMENTARY: Oriko was carrying Yachiyo's grief seed and that's what she and the others fought in this chapter, was Yachiyo's witch. According to the Puella Magi Wiki, a Grief Seed can be transformed by any negative emotion, including anger, so in this case it transformed in response to Thor's anger with Loki. If it was a short battle, that witch was already defeated once by Iroha's team.


	3. Children of the Hollow Earth

The butterfly had, for the time being, been consigned back to Loki’s care. Every moment she spent with it was an increased risk that the Devil would find out about it, and Oriko didn’t want to risk it.

Loki’s other contributions had been casting magic on Thor to replace his Asgardian Armor with something that will draw less attention on earth. And he does look different, in the jeans and t-shirt with the button down shirt over it, and his hair pulled back at the base of his neck. Loki had also provided a long, narrow tower of selenite. “This will glow when it comes near the magic of a Puella Magi,” Loki explained. He held it towards Kirika, and the white stone glowed citrine, then near Oriko, and it glowed a white-grey. Then he tossed it to Thor. It’s not so large that Thor can’t fit the piece into his pocket. “It will glow pink when you find …Her.”

“So when I arrive at Mitakihara, how will I find the person I am looking for? You’ve never named her,” Thor pointed out. “And surely I cannot rely on this magic alone.”

“You can,” Loki replied tartly. 

The two Puella Magi exchanged glances. “We haven’t named her because the Devil might be listening at any time. We just don’t know,” Oriko said, crossing her arms over her chest as she did. 

“But she has two names,” Loki spoke up suddenly. “Surely the Devil doesn’t listen for both of them.”

“You know the names of the person they seek?” Thor asked. “You have never mentioned this before.”

“It seemed,” Loki began, his tone icy, “obvious to me that by not mentioning Her name, these two were trying to prevent something, such as, perhaps, this Devil finding out what was going on.”

Oriko and Kirika had ignored this minor dispute and seemed to be communicating with each other silently. 

Or rather, Loki realized after a moment, telepathically. And they were using magic to broadcast their thoughts, rather loudly, possibly because they thought none who were not Puella Magi could hear them.

“We think,” Oriko said after a moment, “That Her second name is the one that the Devil is the least likely to be listening for.”

Loki nodded, and said one word. “Gretchen.”

Thor didn’t look less confused by this. “So I am looking for someone named Gretchen?”

“Yes,” Oriko confirmed. She turned and walked towards the balcony. 

“She’s gonna see if she can, well, see anything else useful before you leave,” Kirika said, standing there and looking downright patient. “Gretchen will, well, you’ll know her. She’ll know you.”

“How will I arrive in Mitakihara?” Thor asked. 

There was another pause. 

“If you land outside Mitakihara, you can walk through the Devil’s Barrier there. No one’s stopped from going into Mitakihara proper, the city, but no one seems to come out of it,” Kirika said after a long moment. 

“I can send you by magic, to somewhere outside the city,” Loki offered. “It will be less noticeable than they Bifrost.”

Kirika nodded, considering. Oriko came back a moment later. 

“No visions?” Kirika asked. Oriko shook her head no.

“I will go without them then,” Thor said. He turned to Loki. “Send me to the outskirts of this city. And none of your tricks.”

“Wait, how do you plan to come back?” Oriko spoke up, glancing at the others. “Did you figure that out?”

“There is a place,” Loki began reluctantly, “Where the branches of Yggdrasil allow an opening within this town of which you speak. You should be able to slip back to Asgard through it. And if not attracting attention is important, you’ll have to leave Mjolnir behind.”

Thor didn’t look happy at that, but he nodded. Loki told him where to go after he’d found Gretchen. “From there, you can slip back to Asgard,” Loki finished. “And I will keep watch from here, in Asgard. To make sure Gretchen is able to follow you through the portal.”

“Very well.” Thor crossed his arms over his chest, and a moment later he was standing on a street he didn’t recognize. He glanced around for a moment before giving a half-shrug and walking forward. 

(-)

Thor sat up and looked around. The room he was in was unfamiliar. He looked around and the plain and simple couches, the table and chairs in one corner, gave him the idea he was in some kind if Midgardian dwelling. 

The chair he was in was comfortable, but he stood up. He had to find Gretchen, whoever she was. 

The door opened out and he found himself standing on a patio. There were other similar doors in a row. So, some apartment building then.

He set off down the road. 

(-)

“This promises to be boring very swiftly,” Loki noted. He, along with Oriko and Kirika were tracking Thor’s progress by scrying on him through a mirror. It had indeed been a boring few minutes, watching Thor wander here and there in the city with no apparent rhyme or reason. 

“If it were easy…” Kirika muttered under her breath. Loki wondered what she meant but decided not to ask. 

Thor was heading down another side street, holding the selenite that Loki had given him.   
Ahead of him was a girl with blue hair, wearing a school uniform and with a musical note clip in her chair. She turned to face Thor when she heard him approach.

(-)

The girl in blue didn’t look surprised to see him. If anything, she seemed mildly curious.

Thor gave her a friendly smile, assured in his belief that she was a harmless Midgardian. “Hello.”

“Hello,” She replied. “You seem new here.”

“Yes, I…have just moved here.”

She nodded. “Not a lot of people move to Mitakihara anymore. Not the city, anyway, though I guess things are still going well in Mitakihara Town, the suburbs.” She looked up at him. “Why are you here?”

Thor didn’t let his geniality fade. “I told you, I have just arrived here and I am trying to become familiar with the place before I start work tomorrow.”

She shook her head. “You don’t belong here and you didn’t move here for work.”

He looked at her for a long moment, and she smiled. “Just act normal.” She seemed to be looking at him, but was instead looking past him. Thor followed her gaze, and saw two things that looked human, but somehow, not. They reminded him of dolls. “Just act normal,” The blue-haired girl repeated. “And tell me why you’re here.”

“I am looking for a friend ...of...my brother’s. Her name is Gretchen.”

“Ah,” Sayaka said in an understanding tone. She was still looking at the dolls. “Who are you?”

“I am Thor, son of Odin. And you?”

“Sayaka Miki.”

There had been two dolls earlier, Thor noted as he glanced around, trying not to let on that he was looking for them. Now there were four. He glanced back at Sayaka. “Do you know where I can find Gretchen?”

“I’m sorry,” Sayaka said loudly and apropos of nothing. “I’m not familiar with that street.” Then she dropped her voice. “Gretchen can’t leave. Not now. The Devil is on to her. That’s why her minions are watching,” Sayaka glanced at the dolls briefly, and Thor looked at them after she looked away. He was starting to realize that this was a situation when subtly would be needed. 

Subtlety was something he had, in the past, always counted on Loki to provide. 

“But there are two Puella Magi here that you need to take with you when you leave,” Sayaka went on.

“Do you know another route that I can take to get there, then?” Thor asked loudly, then he dropped his voice, too. “Who are they?”

“Mami Tomoe and Kyoko Sakura,” Sayaka told him. 

“Where can I find them?”

“Kyoko…Kyoko will be hard to find. She skips school a lot. Mami will be easier. She’ll be at school. You can probably catch her if you wait outside the school. She’s got blond hair, in curls. And that that magic crystal you’re holding will glow gold when you get near her.” Sayaka turned away. “I’ll see if I can find Kyoko for you.”

Thor nodded and turned away. The dolls were watching, their eyes sliding along, following Thor’s progress as he walked away from Sayaka. 

(-)

The school was not that hard to find, in the end. 

Thor had wondered how he would find it, but it was looming up in front of him now. He wondered if that was because it was not far from where he had met Sayaka, or if there was some other reason that he had found this place. 

School was letting out, and he saw students drifting through the gate. Thor paused on the sidewalk, and pulled the crystal out of his pocket. He glanced around, but there were none of the dolls from earlier that he could see anywhere. 

A blonde-haired girl with her hair in two large twists on either side of her head and wearing a pin shaped like a flower in her hair hurried through the gate and away from the other students. Thor looked at the crystal, which was glowing, and then followed her. 

The girl he had decided was Mami Tomoe turned down a couple of side streets that were more and more deserted. She set her school bag down and turned and when she did, he saw that there was something like a yellow egg in her hand. She started when she saw him. “Aah…Hello.”

“Hello. Are you Mami Tomoe?” Thor asked. 

Mami looked even more startled and took a half step bag, holding the yellow egg tighter. “Who are you?”

“I am Thor Odinson, and I need your help.”

“With what?” Mami demanded suspiciously. 

“A friend named Gretchen needs your help,” Thor said, earnestly. 

“I don’t know anyone named Gretchen,” Mami replied. “I can’t help you.”

“But, you must know her. Your friend Sayaka said you did,” Thor insisted. 

Mami frowned. “I don’t know what kind of game Sayaka is playing, but tell her I said it isn’t very funny.” Thor took a step towards her, reaching out a hand in a gesture that he hoped came across as non-threatening. 

Mami clutched the yellow egg even tighter, and then yellow energy washed over her and she was transformed into her magical girl outfit. “Not another step!” She warned, and yellow ribbons emerged from the ground and wrapped around Thor, holding him in place. “I don’t know who’s told you that, but they were wrong. I don’t know anyone named Gretchen!”

“You know that something is wrong with this place,” Thor told her. “I know that something is wrong, and I have no magic. Why would you not find a way to fix this.”

Mami looked torn. “There’s nothing – there’s nothing wrong here.” Then she took a breath and centered herself. “The only thing wrong here is you.” She finished firmly.   
Thor noticed that the dolls from before had reappeared and were drawing closer.   
Mami turned and hurried away, and then the dolls lunged at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mami's power of denial remains strong. Of course, she's being partially influenced by the barrier around Mitakihara. 
> 
> I hope everyone is still enjoying. We're in for a few slow chapters for now, while we try to get the team assembled. 
> 
> Stay tuned!


	4. Wake Up From This Illusion

The image in the mirror suddenly froze. Thor was gone now, and so were the ribbons and the dolls, leaving the trio who were watching with a view of a deserted street.  


“What’s happening?” Kirika asked.

“Something is interfering with my magic,” Loki admitted, feeling sour about the whole thing. He didn’t like to admit that he’d been beaten by someone else’s magic. He didn’t intend to be beaten, and started using his magic to re-adjust the image. 

After a moment, he was able to find Thor again.

(-)

Thor woke up in the same chair in the same apartment he’d been in earlier. For a moment, he thought that everything that had happened to him was a dream, and that he, Donald Blake, medical doctor, had lived here in Mitakihara forever, or ever since he’d immigrated from Australia…

There was something hard in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that it was a piece of translucent white stone. And then it came back to him: he was here to find Gretchen and his meeting with Mami had not gone well.

He had no idea how much time had passed, but he didn’t intend to waste any more. He got to his feet and headed out the door. 

Sayaka was standing outside the door when is swung open and she raised a hand to keep it from slamming into her. Thor slammed the door shut and saw Sayaka.

“That didn’t go well,” She told him.

“I am aware.” Thor didn’t intend to growl, but he sounded more like a growl than he wanted. “She does not believe me.”

“I’m not surprised, to be honest. But I was able to find Kyoko yesterday,” Sayaka said, and Thor realized that only one day, Midgardian time, had passed. “She is not as…untrusting…no, I’m lying. Kyoko’s magic is illusion based so she knows there’s something wrong with this place but she doesn’t exactly care. She has a bed to sleep in every night and food when she goes home, so she ignores the other details. But she knows they’re there, and she’s not in total denial of things she doesn’t understand. Mami can be.”

Thor looked somewhat puzzled. “If she does not care, as you say, why will she help?”

“Because she does care, and she’s lying about not. She’s being selfish right now, because she has what she wants.” Sayaka said as she joined her hands together, put them at the base of her head, and turned away. “Walk with me and talk quickly. The Devil’s minions aren’t here right not, so let’s get on with things while the getting is good.”

Thor’s long strides made up the distance between them quickly. “Who are you?”

“Sayaka Miki. Did you forget that already?”

“That is not what I meant. How did you know to find me?”

“I didn’t. We were fortunate.”

“You know Gretchen.”

“I work for her.”

“You know the talisman my brother holds, then.”

“It’s a grey butterfly, darker grey around the edges of the wings, dark red spots on the upper wings and dark blue spots on the lower ones,” Sayaka replied, unconcerned and not bothering to look back at him.

Thor paused. “You do know it.”

“No.” Sayaka paused as well and turned to face him. “I have never met your brother. But I used to wear that emblem, in the days before the Devil.”

A rustle of movement made them both turn, and they saw that one of the dolls was peering out from behind a bush.

“I have to say that I wish you wouldn’t upset my friends like that,” Sayaka said, projecting her statement for the benefit of the doll. Then she dropped her voice. “You see that building behind me? The one that looks kind of like there’s an open roof and an iron railing?”

Thor nodded, and said as loudly as possible, which made his voice boom “I do hope you’ll tell her I’m sorry. I meant no disrespect by my actions. She looked like a niece of mine, is all, and I believed it was her.” Then he added in an undertone. “I do see it.”

“Go there. Kyoko told me today that she planned to be there this morning.” Sayaka inclined her head in the direction of the building. “Pragmatic. That was the word I was looking for. Kyoko’s pragmatic. She’ll go with you, I’m sure.”

“Is there anything else I should now about her?” Thor asked. “If she does not wish to come to Asgard with me?”

Sayaka gave a tiny shrug. “You might offer her food.”

“We could…throw a feast in Asgard?” Thor offered.

Sayaka shrugged again. “You might offer it. But I think she’ll go with you anyway.”

Thor nodded, then spoke up again. “I thank you, then for your help. And please, pass my apologies on to your friend.”

Sayaka gave him a quick grin and walked away briskly, pausing long enough to pick up a school bag before she went on her way.

Thor, for his part, turned and went towards the building that he had been directed too.

The doll’s uncanny eyes followed him as he walked.

(-)

There was indeed a viewing platform on the building. It was a kind of odd building, because of the platform, and the fact that the building went on, a floor or two above the platform, as though it wasn’t there. Thor looked at this and wondered if he should ask Tony about it next time he saw the man.

A girl with red hair in a ponytail was leaning on the balcony next to an oversized pair of binoculars, looking out of the city. She wore tall brown boots, a green jacket, and shorts. She heard the door open and turned to face him. 

“May I join you?” Thor asked. 

“It’s a public place,” She said, pulling a box out of her pocket. She pulled out a stick of pocky and crunched it down. 

“I met a friend of yours earlier,” Thor began in a hesitant voice. He didn’t want to repeat the same mistake he’d made that had upset Mami so much. 

“Sayaka? Yeah, she told me. She told me a real strange story, too,” Kyoko said. “She said I’ve been trapped in some kind of magic barrier, and you’re here to be my ticket out.”

This was oversimplified, but so far all correct. Thor nodded, and hoped she would go on. She didn’t. So he spoke. “Will you come with me back to Asgard, and help fix what is wrong with your world?”

Kyoko leaned back against the railing and pulled out another stick of pocky. “It’s strange, you know. I have a place to sleep at night, and food. Everything I ever wanted, really. But this town, there’s something wrong with this town. It’s …I don’t know. It’s all a big lie. Ain’t that crazy? A town being a lie? But I think it is.” Thor noticed the ring on her middle finger, with a red stone, and realized that he had seen a similar one, but with a blue stone, on Sayaka’s finger before. 

Kyoko pointed a stick of pocky at him “You can’t leave this town, you know. I tried once. I went down to the station and got on a train to Tokyo, but right at the edge of the town, when we were about to cross into the next town, I was back in Mitakihara, on a train going toward the center of the town.”

“I know a way out,” Thor said. “And I swear to you, I will do all in my power to help fix your world.”

Kyoko’s grin reminded him of a wolf’s grin. “I would have settled for just a way out.” She slipped her hand into the pocket of her jacket and came out with another box of pocky, which she handed to him. Thor took it, feeling slightly confused, and wondered if it was anything like Pop-Tarts 

Let’s go,” Kyoko said.


	5. A Subtle Lapse in Time

Thor had figured that he would have to go back to Mami and convince her again, and get her to come to the place where they could slip through the branches of Yggdrasil back to Asgard, but when he got to the spot he’d been told to go to, the blonde was already there. She looked at him and Kyoko apprehensively. “I don’t know if I believe any of this. But if what Sayaka says is true…” She trailed off, uncertain.

Kyoko scoffed. “Come on. You’re a Puella Magi, for crying out loud. Have some courage.” In a flash of red light, she stood there in her Puella Magi outfit. “Now where’s this door out of this place?”

Thor looked apprehensively at what appeared to be a door of graffiti on a wall. “I begin to suspect treachery.”

Back in Asgard, Loki rolled his eyes. 

Mami transformed next, and they all looked at the door. Kyoko strode forward. “Let’s open it.”

She went to open the door, grabbing at the spray painted handle. It felt solid under her hand. “Definitely magic!” She reported. She turned the handle, and then yanked on it. “It’s locked!”

“This is my brother’s treachery!” Thor growled. “He has trapped us here.”

“Or the Devil has closed the door,” Sayaka was suddenly behind them and they all turned to look at her. “She probably knows that someone is working against her and intends to make sure that we’re stopped now rather than later.”

“Then we have no way to leave,” Thor said, remembering what Oriko and Kirika had said before he left Asgard. 

Kyoko sighed and kicked at a stone in the short alley.

“How did you know there was a door here?” Sayaka demanded. “We’ve been looking for so long for a way out and we’ve never found this.”

“My brother has skill in magic. He was the one who told me to find this doorway between the worlds, and he is watching. He will be disappointed, I think, that Gretchen could not come back,” Thor said. 

“I’m pretty disappointed on that front myself,” Sayaka muttered. 

One of the dolls appeared behind them at the end of the alley, a kind that Thor noticed didn't look like the other's he'd seen in the city. This one carried a weapon, and wore a tall hat. “Where did that thing come from?” Mami asked, but Sayaka had already blown it up with a blast of magic. 

“You have got to get out of here now or you’ll be trapped here forever,” Sayaka warned. Overhead, the sky was beginning to darken as clouds with undulating lines of purple against their dark grey bodies began to roll in. “The Devil will use you to lure whoever sent you here and trap them here too.”

“I will not allow that.” Thor informed her. 

“You may not get a choice,” Sayaka said grimly. She summoned a sword to her hand, and impaled herself on it. 

“What are you doing?” Mami fairly shrieked. Thor looked appalled. Kyoko watched passively. 

Sayaka didn’t respond. A moment later a huge, three-eyed mermaid monster rose out of the pool of blood Sayaka had created and took off down the alley in the direction that they had come. 

“I’m going to buy you some time,” Sayaka said, and blue bandages wrapped around her. A moment later she was in her magical girl form. She turned to Thor. “Your brother told you about the door here. Did he tell you anything about how to open the door?”

“No, and I cannot reach him from here, without the Bifrost. He watches, but I believe his magic would be noticed if he came,” Thor told her. 

“Watching…” Sayaka muttered, and gave Thor a questioning look. “Then he can see you right now?”

“Yes.” 

“And hear us?”

“I believe so.”

“Then here’s what we’re going to do. If he can open the door from his end, I’m going to open the door from this end. It might be enough to get you all out of here.” Sayaka decided. 

“Thor?” A new voice behind them asked, and they turned to see the some of the Avengers standing there. 

“What?!” Sayaka exclaimed. “What are you doing here?” Then she noticed someone. “Captain Rogers?”

“Sayaka?” The man asked, looking somewhat confused. 

“What are you doing here?” Sayaka repeated. 

“We saw Thor was here,” Iron Man spoke up. “We were working on something in Tokyo, and then there were these social media posts. Thought we’d swing by, see what he was doing.”

“My friends,” Thor began, then trailed off. He had intended to tell them they had to leave, but he wasn’t sure that they could get back out through the ward. 

“They’ll have to go out with you,” Sayaka muttered darkly, confirming Thor's suspicions. “There’s no other way out. They’ll be trapped in this ward, otherwise.”

“Why would be trapped here?” Steve asked.

“Because you wandered into a magic ward that you shouldn’t have,” Sayaka said. “You need to go, now.”

More Clara dolls appeared. Mami pulled out her flintlocks and began to fire at them. Sayaka ran past the Avengers and Thor and Kyoko, down the alley, where she started to pull on the door.

(-)

Back in Asgard, Loki had not been happy to see the arrival of the Avengers. But there was more that he had to work on now. “The door doesn’t open here. I’ll have to go open it.”

Oriko nodded. “Kirika, go with him. Make sure no one interferes.”

Kirika gave one brief nod. 

“We will have to teleport.” Loki warned her. 

Kirika wasn’t fazed. “What are we waiting for?”

A moment later the pair vanished, leaving Oriko alone to watch the mirror. “If only someone had smashed my Soul Gem when I asked them to,” she said to the empty room. 

They came out by the door faster than Loki had planned on. The entire teleportation, which was not a slow method of travel, had taken even less time than normal, and as Loki stumbled to a stop by the door, it dawned on him that Kirika’s magic affected time. “Warn me before you do that again,” he said.

Kirika’s landing had been easier, but she had been prepared for it. She nodded again and said nothing as Loki turned to what appeared to be a blank wall, and started to pull on a doorknob that only those with magic could see.

(-)

Back in Mitakihara, Sayaka felt Loki’s magic, and the door slowly, relucntantly, was pried open. “Go. The door is open, but I don’t know how long it’ll stay that way. Hurry!” She gasped out. 

Kyoko turned to Mami. “Go first, and leave one of your ribbons here. Use your magic to tie us back together if something happens.”

Mami nodded and jumped through the door. Behind her, a bright yellow ribbon appeared. 

Sayaka looked at Iron Man. “You next.”

“So where am I going again?” He asked, but Captain America shoved him through the door. 

“Follow the ribbon!” Steve said, and then they were both gone.

Kyoko turned to Thor and Natasha. “Come on. Let’s get out of here!”

Octavia von Seckondorff was still fighting off the Clara dolls. Thor had been helping. Even without Mjolnir, Thor was still able to punch the monsters, and he had found a nice metal rod by a large dumpster that worked as an improvised weapon. 

Thor turned back when he heard Kyoko. “There are too many of them, and they do not stay defeated.”

“They’re magic.” Kyoko called back, spearing two of them. “They’ll probably never stop coming. So let’s go!”

Thor turned and followed Kyoko back to the door. He dropped the pipe and went through it first. Kyoko stopped and got ready to spear Mami’s ribbon and cut off the connection. “Are you coming!?” She nearly shouted at Sayaka.

“No! I can't! I'm needed here. Go now!” Sayaka replied. She wasn’t going to be able to hold the door open much longer. 

“I can help hold them off.” Kyoko offered. 

“You’ll be trapped,” Sayaka warned. "And I need you more on the other side of this door then I do right here."

“You can’t fight them off by yourself.”

“I wasn’t going to try,” Sayaka said. "Just go!"

Kyoko stabbed the ribbon, breaking the connection. “Suit yourself, then.” She said, and darted through the door.

(-)

In Asgard, Loki was struggling to hold the door open on his end. There was a powerful magic working against Sayaka and himself, and he could feel it. The door was starting to pull shut in spite of his efforts. 

“Slow time,” Kirika said, and Loki felt the sliding shut of the door slow to a crawl.

Mami Tomoe came through the door first, followed quickly by the others.

Kyoko Sakura was the last one to come through before the door, in spite of Kirika’s, Loki’s, and Sayaka’s magic, closed with a decided magical slam.


End file.
